Yet another reason why children should help out at home

Hello everyone!

Today, I was lucky enough to attend a talk by Dr Michael Carr-Gregg on How to Build Resilience in Adolescents. Did you know that many medical professionals now consider adolescence starts at around 10 years of age? These days, the average age of children going into the physical transformations of puberty is 10.2 years!! Back in 1901, the average age for entering puberty was 16.

Its scary that all those changes - hormonal and physical - are happening at such a young age.

While I can go on about theories as to why its happening so early, that's really not what the talk was about - and not what this blog post is about.

During the talk, Michael pointed out 3 key things that really stuck with me. Resilience in children is built when children:

1. feel safe;

2. feel valued; and

3. feel listened to.

During dinner, I tell my children (aged 7 and 8) this. (My children and I often talk about our day during dinner). And my son pipes up:

S (age 7): So did you adults talk about what you guys can do to make those 3 things happen?

Me: No, it was mostly just talking generally.

S: Well, I can tell you real things that can make it happen. The first is you have to play games with us. Like playing scrabble and riding our bikes together. And the second is that you have to keep making us do fun jobs around the house.

Me: Fun jobs?

S: Yeah, like how you make me grind the coffee beans and rinse the dishes and put them away.

J (age 8): Yeah, like how I have to do the vacuuming and save our plastic bags so you can rewash them and save money. You know, all the things that we do to be a real important part of this family!

So there you go - my kids tips on how to feel listened to and valued. (I guess its a credit to me that they took being safe for granted and just shrugged it off as something normal in their world).

My daughter colour-coordinating her outfit with the vacuum cleaner to make the job more "fun".

I would love to go on a bit more about other points in Michael's talk but its late and I'm afraid it may have to wait another time! (There are times when I wish the days can be just a little bit longer - 24 hours is just not enough!)

I wish you all a good week ahead.

Newspaper bin liner - alternative to plastic bags

Hello everyone!

Last week, I posted in Simple Green Frugal Co-op (other blog I write in) about what I'll be doing when I run out of plastic shopping bags to use as bin liners. As many of you know, from 1 November 2011, shops will no longer be able to give you a plastic shopping bags for the goods you buy from them.

This doesn't pose a dilemma for most people I know. Almost everyone I know uses reusable bags for the shops. However, almost everyone I know still does the occasional shop without them so we can stock up on the shopping bags to use as bin liners.

Anyway, my plan was to just use the plastic from existing bags (eg. bread bags) for wet scraps that can't go into the compost bin and to use newspaper for the rest. This is a simple plan and I know its one that I can stick to.

Having said that its also great to have other options. In my SFG post, a lady passed on the idea of using newspaper folded origami style for the bin liner. I think this is great and would work very well for my young children who may not be able to follow my original plan.

So here's a video that shows how to fold newspaper into a bin liner:

Anyway, I hope you found this post helpful. Till next time!